Eshoo to Rebuff GOP’s Renewed FCC Reform Push
House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., will slam Republican efforts to pursue some FCC reforms in the 113th Congress, according to an advanced copy of her remarks that circulated Wednesday. The majority’s proposed FCC process reform bills are a “backdoor way of gutting the FCC’s authority,” Eshoo’s will say in reference to recent drafts of two bills (HR-3310, HR-3309) that failed to advance last session (CD March 27/12 p1). Eshoo’s comments came ahead of Thursday’s subcommittee hearing entitled: “Improving FCC Processes” (CD July 10 p5).
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"We're now in the seventh month of the 113th Congress, but only one bill has moved through our Subcommittee,” Eshoo will say. “Instead of working on legislation that creates billable hours for Washington telecom lawyers, let’s work together to craft policies that will create jobs for innovators, promote investment in infrastructure across the country, and technological advances that help American families.”
Eshoo will oppose the FCC Process Reform Act (http://1.usa.gov/15gadcj), which would require the commission to consider market forces before regulating, publish its decisions promptly, create “shot clocks” for resolving agency matters and allow more than two commissioners to discuss commission business without issuing an ex parte, among other reforms. She will also oppose the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act (http://1.usa.gov/15wUIzc), which would consolidate FCC reporting requirements to Congress.
Eshoo will endorse the FCC Collaboration Act (HR-539) and say she supports the effort to permit FCC commissioners to have better collaboration outside of public meetings. If passed, the bill would modify rules forbidding more than two FCC members from talking to each other outside of an official public meeting (CD Feb 7 p12). Eshoo said she supports efforts to permit commissioners to appoint scientists and engineers to their staff, create an online database of consumer complaints and streamline many FCC reporting requirements.
The FCC “faces an enormous set of challenges in the coming years, including the upcoming voluntary incentive spectrum auction, the transition to IP, and the modernization of the E-Rate program in our nation’s schools and libraries,” Eshoo plans to say. “Our role at the subcommittee should be to ensure the agency is equipped with the tools to meet these challenges, while ensuring the FCC can continue to protect the public interest and preserve competition in the communications marketplace,” her opening remarks said.
Former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell will tell the panel it’s “prudent for Congress to cast a bipartisan oversight eye on the processes of all administrative agencies,” according to an advanced copy of his remarks. McDowell, now a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Economics of the Internet, will plead with lawmakers to modernize the Sunshine Act so “more than two commissioners can meet at a time to discuss substance,” according to his remarks. He will ask lawmakers to eliminate and consolidate FCC reports to Congress, review and reform the assessment of regulatory fees and pursue a “fundamental rewrite” of the nation’s telecom and technology laws.
Free State Foundation President Randy May will say FCC reform is “needed now more than ever,” according to a copy of his prepared testimony. May will say he supports the majority’s proposed FCC regulatory reforms because “they would make the FCC less likely to default so often to regulatory measures, even absent clear and convincing evidence of market failure or consumer harm.”